Iris Popescu

Iris Popescu is an architect and a leader in accessibility and inclusive design from Romania. Iris currently serves as President of The Alternative Methods of Social Integration Association (AMAIS), an organization she founded that supports people with disabilities in changing the narrative on disability, while providing inclusive design services, facilitating empathy-based exercises, and offering training. Iris also teaches an Inclusive Architecture course at "Ion Mincu" University of Architecture and Urban Planning, runs an inclusive architecture and consultancy practice, serves as Director of Region II for the UIA’s Architecture for All group and is a validated URBACT expert, where she contributes to international advocacy and supporting public administrations in integrating inclusive design principles in urban development.

Iris holds a BSc, MSc and PhD in Architecture from "Ion Mincu" University of Architecture and Urban Planning, and is the author of the first inclusive design guide published in Romania. 

At MIT, Iris aims to research organizations—formal or ad hoc—that have shaped accessibility in architecture since the 1970s, with a focus on those where people with disabilities were directly involved in developing solutions, while exploring which models could be adapted to the Romanian and European context. Additionally, Iris is interested in understanding what has driven sustained disability activism in the U.S., especially leading to the ADA, and how similar momentum could be nurtured in Romania to build a more active, engaged community.

Funded by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs under the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program.